Finish Strong

This week I want to show you a few tips to make your food better and save you some time along the way. There are two finishing salts I like to use and a compound butter that can be used many ways. Above, I have a salt grinder with Rosemary and Thyme, lemon salt and garlic herb compound butter.

For the salt grinder, all you need to do is mix in your favorite herbs with coarse salt. I like to take some fresh Rosemary and Thyme leaves (make sure to remove the stems) and dry them out for a day before adding. I would also recommend chopping the Rosmary leaves into a few pieces to make grinding easier. I use on almost anything from steaks, fish, chicken, potatoes or grilled vegetables. Feel free to experiment, I have also tried habiscus leaves and edible lavender as that makes a nice fragrant salt as well.

To make the lemon salt, I mixed one tablespoon sea salt flakes and zested one lemon together into a small bowl. I then pounded down the salt flakes with the muddler from my bar tools, but use anything that you think is similar (a mortar and pestle is ideal). It should keep in an airtight container or ziploc bag for a few weeks. I use it on fish, shell fish and schnitzel mostly.

The compound butter has a few steps, but first I wanted to show you two tools that will make your life easier when trying to make this. The tamis, or any fine mesh screen (mine is actually a skillet cover normally used to elimininate splashes) and the pastry or bench scraper will help greatly.

Ingredients:

1 stick unsalted butter (room temperature)

1 tablespoon chopped parsley

1/2 teaspoon lemon juice (small squeeze just for a hint of flavor)

1 teaspoon fine salt (divided into a pinch and the remaining 80% or so)

1 garlic bulb

1 extra clove of garlic , minced

drizzle of olive oil

tin foil and saran wrap

Directions:

Place stick of butter in a mixing bowl and allow to come to room temperature (about 8 hours). You should be able to easily blend it with a spatula. Preheat oven to 350*. Take garlic bulb and slice off the pointy end to barely reveal the cloves as seen above. Place bulb on a sheet of tin foil with exposed side up. Drizzle with olive oil and take the small pinch of the salt to sprinkle on the top, saving the remaining salt. Close the foil packet so that it lays flat in the oven, keeping the salted side up. Bake for 1 hour then remove and allow to cool for 10 minutes. Take the roasted garlic bulb from the packet, squeeze the cloves from the skin and onto the tamis. Use the bench scraper to seperate the garlic puree from the skin. The garlic puree will collect on the underside. Add the garlic puree to the mixing bowl of butter and all remaining ingredients. Mix well with a spatula. Place a 12” or so long pice of saran on the counter, then spread the butter mixture onto it, as a 6” long rough tube-like shape. From the back to the front, seal over the saran . Use the edge of the scraper and press the edge of butter back onto itself into a tight log. Twist the ends into a knot, again forcing the butter into a tight roll as you do that. Trim off the excess saran after the knots and refrigerate for at least an hour before using. Take out compound butter as need, slicing through one portion at a time and reserving remaining stick. Remember to remove thin layer of saran with each slice. This butter I use often with shellfish, especially to make shrimp scampi, on potatoes, to top steaks or for garlic toast.